About this product: Stardust is an utterly charming fairy tale in the tradition of The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story. Neil Gaiman, creator of the darkly elegant Sandman comics and author of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, tells the story of young Tristran Thorn and his adventures in the land of Faerie. One fateful night, Tristran promises his beloved that he will retrieve a fallen star for her from beyond the Wall that stands between their rural English town (called, appropriately, Wall) and the Faerie realm. No one ever ventures beyond the Wall except to attend an enchanted flea market that is held every nine years (and during which, unbeknownst to him, Tristran was conceived). But Tristran bravely sets out to fetch the fallen star and thus win the hand of his love. His adventures in the magical land will keep you turning pages as fast as you can--he and the star escape evil old witches, deadly clutching trees, goblin press-gangs, and the scheming sons of the dead Lord of Stormhold. The story is by turns thrillingly scary and very funny. You'll love goofy, earnest Tristran and the talking animals, gnomes, magic trees, and other irresistible denizens of Faerie that he encounters in his travels. Stardust is a perfect read-aloud book, a brand-new fairy tale you'll want to share with a kid, or maybe hoard for yourself. (If you read it to kids, watch out for a couple of spicy sex bits and one epithet.) --Therese Littleton
About this product: Critics did not like this film very much, calling it cruel and bleak, for example. I think it's one of Woody's funniest, most intelligent films, with classic scenes to rival his other films. This was one of the first films to really examine the stalker like quality of obsessed fans. Sandy Bates (Woody's character) is bombarded with people at the festival looking for some great insight into life, when Sandy really has none. There's a woman who sneaks into his hotel room thinking sleeping with him will by a mystical experience (and her boyfriend approves of it, at least she says). There are also tons of people who have "causes" who want him to talk at their function. 27 years after this film was made, many of these things are now commonplace. Cinematically, this is one of Woody's best film. The black and white photography is beautiful, and many of Woody's compositions are the best of his career. And I love the use of Moonlight Serenade during the "balloon" scene. This is a much more complex film than most people give credit to. The critics fell all over Interiors (an overly serious film which was good, but not great), but they didn't like this one at all for some reason. This has turned out to be one of my favorite Woody Allen films.
About this product: At last, USA Today bestselling author Lynn Kurland delivers her newest time travel romance. In the 1200s, Amanda of Artane has one summer to choose from her suitors--and find love forever.
What happens when you make a promise to bring back a fallen star? Teenager Tristran Thorn is about to find out, as he ventures beyond the wall of his English countryside town. After falling in love with the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester, he sets out on a quest to fulfill his promise to his beloved—and stumbles into the magical realm that lies beyond.
About this product: "Thanks for a wonderful childhood!" Stephen Digges tells his mother as he hugs her goodbye in front of his New York City college dorm, and it's a measure of just how persuasive and potent her account of his difficult adolescence is that we know exactly what he means. At 13, Stephen was running away, stealing his mother's car, carrying guns, doing drugs, and getting into trouble with the law and in school. Already divorced from Stephen's father, Digges saw her son's problems break up her second marriage and heard society, her family, and her neighbors tell her she was too easy on her son, that fatherless boys needed "tough love" and discipline. But Digges had the courage to listen to a highly unconventional therapist who urged her, "Join him in his anger at life.... Don't educate him about what he should have done. Let him figure it out." Together with Digges's foster son (an African American teen thrown out of his home after a stint in juvenile detention), they create a bohemian household. Three dogs (one of them epileptic) "sleep on the beds no questions asked"; Stephen does his homework with a pet mouse named Frederick in his pocket; there are swarms of kittens "leaping in and out of the windows"; and the pizza delivery for dinner may be interrupted by "phone calls from teachers, more often the cops." Go figure: creative, anti-authoritarian Stephen acquires a sense of responsibility and ambition in this offbeat atmosphere. His mother's surprisingly funny, unsentimentally tender memoir reminds us that there are no rules about raising children, just countless perils and boundless possibilities. --Wendy Smith
About this product: Every step you take in A Walk Through Time moves you millions of years forward in Earth's history. Inspired by the idea of a one-mile stroll through the evolution of life, Sidney Liebes recruited some terrific writers and artists to create a traveling museum exhibit; A Walk Through Time summarizes the experience in book form, with the help of fascinating photos and intelligent, enjoyable text. The most profound realization along this temporal journey is just how small a part human history plays in the big time line. In the museum exhibit, where one foot equals one million years, human presence takes up all of one-thousandth of an inch; in the book's time line, we merit barely a speck. Our tiniest living fellows--the bacteria and blue-green algae, the amazing arthropods, the merging microbes--are the real stars of the show. Readers are treated to intriguing views of bizarre organisms like tardigrades, velvet worms, and lichens ("Taking everything we know about algae and fungi, we still never would have predicted the outcome of their synergy"), along with the microbes that once ruled the earth. Only at the very end of the line, long after the development of sexual reproduction, after the great Cretaceous extinction, after the development of flight and fur, will you find humans. Taking this walk is a great lesson in perspective, a cautionary tale about hubris and longevity that every human should read. --Therese Littleton
About this product: I hope you haven't missed this classic debut novel from 1996. Lynn Kurland writes with the same charm and flair as Jude Deveraux, and this clever and original ghost story is akin to the fabulous, Knight in Shining Armor. The book has garnered award nominations from Romantic Times and Romance Writers of America, and will definitely be a fixture on my "keeper" shelf. When Genevieve inherits a castle, she isn't expecting the incredibly sexy 13th century knight that accompanies it. Unfortunately, he's a ghost, so fantasy is all Genevieve and Kendrick de Paiget are able to share until Kendrick actually becomes corporeal, and Genevieve has to overcome her fear of the flesh. Hardly your normal problem with a ghost!
Ashleigh's life becomes chaotic when relatives come to stay.
After a family tragedy, Ashleigh's thoroughbred–breeding aunt and cousin come to live at Edgardale, along with their ten head of horses. Ashleigh has been busy enough trying to take care of her own pregnant mare and get the Griffen's yearlings ready for training, but now she has to handle the extra burden of the other yearlings, plus a cousin who is afraid of horses and likes to copy everything Ashleigh does. Will Ashleigh manage to juggle everything – and still maintain the importance of family?
Throughout this touching and final book in the Ashleigh series, our young protagonist grows up before our very eyes – Ashleigh finds a truly selfless way to share her love of horses with others.
About this product: Neil Gaiman’s critically-acclaimed adult fairy tale makes the leap from novel to screen in this spectacular new movie starring Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Rupert Everett, Peter O’Toole, Sienna Miller and Ricky Gervais.
Tristran Thorn vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. His quest leads over an ancient wall, into a magical realm strange beyond imagining…
This stunning hardcover volume follows the storyline of the movie, with commentary & interviews with the starry cast and the crew, enchanting color photos, and beautiful, fully painted production art, the full magical screenplay and an exclusive introduction by Neil Gaiman.
BOOK
